A recent Business Week article reports that AOL plans to create the "newsroom of the future" by using high-powered technology to revolutionize the business of gathering and presenting news.

At a time when print giants like former AOL sister company Time magazine and virtually every major daily in the U.S. are struggling to cope with the new media landscape, AOL has hired more than 500 full-time journalists and buys contributions from more than 3,000 freelancers.

Quoting CEO Tim Armstrong, the article goes on to say that AOL is using advanced analytics to measure reader interest and engagement in stories those journalists create, and may even share profits with writers whose stories earn the most page views.
As a former journalist, I understand how earth-shattering that approach really is.
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Considering how much technology has advanced over the past 15 years, not having everything available at your finger tips is a distant memory. But just because it's available at any given moment, does that make it ok to give into temptation?

For example, your iPhone goes everywhere with you. You take notes during presentations, cite helpful source information during meetings and can suggest local sushi spots at the flick of a wrist. Those seem like acceptable uses, but what happens when actions aren't so genuine?

We all know the type -- the guy who's sitting next to you checking his Fantasy Football stats and updating his Facebook status during the weekly staff meeting. Clearly he can't be giving his undivided attention and therefore isn't fully engaged in the conversation. On the surface such actions are rude. However is it becoming the norm? Is such access giving us more of a reason to be rude?

Is it really necessary to always have your iPhone or
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I've been hearing rumors of a very disturbing trend of B2B publishers dropping their BPA Audits. Take a look at almost any trade publication and you can't help but notice the issues are thinner than they were a year ago. I understand that trade publishers, just like many other industries, need to lower operating expenses to survive this economic downturn. However, media professionals rely on third party audits when researching a publication's circulation. Circulation is a big part of what publishers are selling, and the only way I have to be sure that a magazine reaches who I'm trying to reach is through third party audit statements like the BPA.

Without an audit a publication is telling me "BUYER BEWARE". And with tight media budgets that will be the reality during the economy recovery, recommending an unaudited publication is just too risky.
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Fear is such a simple 4-letter word, but at the same time it is extremely powerful. I sit back and consider the times when fear has caused me to do the opposite of what I normally would. It is very impressive when you take the time to understand what this 4-letter word has done to all of us. It isn't something that is only part of our personal lives. It is alive and well in the business world, too.

This past year of economic hardships has put the fear into many of us and how could it not? Job losses, budget cuts, and companies failing...The list of solid reasons to be afraid of what 2010 may bring is endless. So how can we let go of past fears and jump into 2010 with our heads held high and full of confidence? I took a look at some suggestions from self-help books to see if they could be translated into the business world. This is what I found:

Understand the cause of
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I’m a commuter so I have a couple of hours a day essentially by myself. I have become a big fan of satellite radio – lots of news shows and NPR. Lately the word count on recovery is up. Funny how reluctantly the word recession was muttered but saying recovery comes easily.

Yes, a recovery will eventually come. Sooner for some, later for others. If you are a B2B marketer you need to be thinking about when your markets are going to recover. Economic downturn/recovery history tells us that marketers that survived previous recessions generally had a recession marketing plan. I don’t know this for a fact but I can only imagine that they also had a recovery marketing plan. Have you drafted one yet?

Today might be a good time to start. But take heed, you can’t simply do a find and replace for dates in your pre-recession marcom plan. If you went quiet during this recession you will be surprised how much the B2B marketing landscape has shifted.
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As social media continues to make inroads into the B2B universe, more companies are including blogs as a communications tactic. According to the Society for New Communications Research, 16 percent of Fortune 500 companies support a corporate blog while Forrester Research reports the number is closer to 29 percent. Both reports are one to two years old so I suspect the numbers are much higher today.

As acceptance of blogging continues to grow I thought it might be helpful to give some advice on how to create and maintain a company blog. This is the first of several blogs, each focusing on a specific topic.

Let’s start at the beginning. You’ve decided to create a blog but are faced with two important questions:
1.    Who should write the blog?
2.    How often should you post?

Some companies are fortunate and have an “industry expert” on staff, someone with broad industry
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While nobody is certain, it is likely that as 2010 approaches, many B-to-B marketers will be in a recovery mode. Rather than looking for ways to cut spending, it will be time to make decisions about where to invest to move the company forward.

Management will be looking for solid answers to questions such as: Where should resources be allocated for maximum effectiveness? What actions should be taken to have the greatest impact on customers choosing our brand? What will be the impact of these actions on our competitors?

But the marketing landscape in 2010 will be different. Things have changed. So the answers to these questions won't be the same as they were before the downturn.

Among the significant changes just might be changes in your own company...or your markets or competitors. So late this year or early in 2010, it could be an ideal time to do a reassessment of your brand equity and that of your competitors.
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What can you say about the state of B-to-B PR right now? That it's holding its own in the midst of severe marketing budget cuts? That its value is shining through because it is so cost effective? That it's leveraging social media and social networks in innovative ways that many B-to-B marketers wouldn't have imagined 12 - maybe even 6 - months ago?

I think I would say all of those things, but they are all so obvious, right? There's another level where PR plays that's always important but is absolutely critical in times of crisis, and for many B-to-B companies the current global economic situation is a true crisis.

At its best, PR can help frame issues and articulate policy for senior management. It can then be the engine of communication to all stakeholders. At its best, PR can be the tip of the spear, leading the charge as companies manage through this recession and simultaneously begin to plan for the turnaround. 

PR can be the level head and calm
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I'm a big fan of Mad Men, the television drama series on AMC that depicts the advertising business in the 1960s. I've seen every episode. In fact, I even have my favorites saved on the home DVR. Therefore, it should likely come as no surprise that I'm including it as the introduction to my latest post.

Mass communications was the name of the game fifty years ago.
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You can’t go anywhere or strike up a conversation with anyone without the topic turning to the economy. Invariably the question I ask or is asked of me is, “How’s business?”

We’ve been through this before and weathered the storm. So have our clients. Typically, the knee-jerk reaction is to cut budgets, reallocate funds and tighten the marketing and advertising belt. We have a white paper titled, “Why Branding Becomes More Important In Uncertain Times” written by Ken Jones. You can download this white paper here.

Marketers who decide to continue to invest in their marketing programs during tough economic times, albeit possibly at a smaller allocation, need to be more prudent how and where they spend their money. That’s obvious.

So how is business? You’ve still got a communications budget, probably smaller than originally planned.
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